


Mirrored Cage

by Sinneli



Category: Persona 4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-21
Updated: 2015-07-21
Packaged: 2018-04-10 12:51:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4392593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sinneli/pseuds/Sinneli





	Mirrored Cage

My name is Yukiko Amagi. I live in Inaba, and it certainly is a quiet town. Occasionally we get tourists looking for our local attraction, the Amagi inn. It is an inherited inn after all. My family ran it for generations. Once upon a time I had despised the fact that I would have to run it without being given a choice, but I don't mind anymore. I wake up there and help out a little bit before I head to school. The work in the inn isn't much. I wash the dishes, scrub the floor, and organize some of the necessities for the customers. It really isn't much, but one day I will have to manage this inn. 

Then I head to school. Yasogami High is quite ordinary. We changed our homeroom teacher due to the an unfortunate incident, but I don't know if the students miss him that much. He had our sympathy, and pardon me if I sound a little rude, but he was not a great teacher. 

My friend, Chie Satonaka, is sitting right next to me, with her green track jacket over her uniform. She is a reliable and loyal friend, and it seems that she is arguing with Yosuke-kun. Again about the Trial of the Dragon. Chie seems to be still holding a grudge about that. He's a bit of a klutz. I hear their words and find a rather amusing pun and I burst out in laughter. They look at me funny when I laugh and I end up laughing louder as a result. The look on their faces are so funny and not to mention I end up remembering the little word slip earlier, and I chortle with snickers until I manage to calm down. 

The school is over, and the sun seems to cast some reflections on the window, making them resemble a mirrors. Just a little bit. A shiver runs down my spine, but I don't know why. Perhaps someone did walk over my grave? It is a morbid saying, but I don't understand why I felt such dread for a split second. Was I forgetting something important? Maybe I did leave something on the stove back home. I was practicing my cooking earlier yesterday. But would that not strengthen the flavor if it was broiled down? I did think I put too much water on it yesterday, and it was a large pot of water. And the workers there would notice if it started to smell like burning, would it? 

But I don't remember putting something on the stove today. Maybe I'm just forgetting things. I walk out with Chie, Yosuke-kun, and Yui-kun. Kanji-kun is strangely missing today. He has an appetite that might match Chie's. I'm not really surprised about Rise-san's absence. She did mention she had something important, right? No one seems to mind their disappearance so I think of it as natural as I walk to Junes. 

Yosuke-kun's father works for Junes Inaba Department, and thereby he did rob of the local business until they started collaborating together. It is a good effort and everyone seems happy. Our little economy is thriving and we are getting more tourists during those seasons. And as a result, Yosuke-kun often treats us with some discount in the food court. He seems to be unwilling on some occasions, but I think he just feels sorry for the cooks' income. I ignore his protests and focus more on something more important. 

After a rather lively conversation in the food court, I start to head home. It rained a few days back so there are puddles on the street. As I pass by, I feel another shiver. Maybe it was getting colder now that the sun was setting. 

I decide to take a bath in the onsen when I get back to the inn. We have no customers today using it as it is not the tourist season. Some guests stay over but we know those people from town. They are just here for a drink. Perhaps something went well today and they are celebrating. With my bare body wrapped with a towel, I approach the foggy atmosphere of the onsen as I enter the warm water. 

_Drip._

The little bamboo piece that tilts to cycle the water in the onsen continues.

_Drip._

I start counting, from one to a hundred, waiting to see how long it would take for the tip of my fingers to become wrinkled. 

_Drip._

It was getting a little steamy by the time I got out. Perhaps it was a little warmer than usual. My heart is beating faster. It hurts, just a little. My head spins, but I blame it on staying in the water too long, or standing up too fast. I do not blame it on the shuddering cold despite the fact that it was pleasantly warm where I was standing. My legs are carrying me towards the mirror, in front of the little shower stalls where buckets are stacked. There are lined mirrors there,  obscured by a thin layer of moisture. 

I wipe it off hastily, to see a smile on my face, and of other people behind me. 

I am alone in this onsen, and I am not smiling. 

I think back, to the workers in the inn I greeted while I came in. They had their clothes, but I could not remember their faces. 

I think back further, when I was with Yui-kun, Yosuke-kun, and Chie. I don't remember their faces. Only their clothes. Gray jacket, orange headphones hanging on the neck, green track jacket... I know what they look like. But they were them... Weren't they? 

The face on the mirror smiles more, and I stand up and leave. 

No. I'm sitting. Still kneeling in front of the mirror as the reflection of my naked form leaves, going to join someone. It gives a mocking smile at me as a farewell, as I am still stuck in this place, alone. I think back further, wondering when was the last time I have seen someone's face within this place. Was I truly alone? I desperately look for an answer. 

I rush out, not bothering to cover myself this time, into the inn, looking for workers. They simply greet me. Scripted plays. They do not make comments as I shake them, begging them to say that something is wrong with me, but their comments are about how good a girl I am and how I'm trying so hard. 

Everything is scripted. They are faceless. 

I take a guess at what they are. I've seen something like this before. A new determination comes from my fears. Fear is replaced by courage. A burning, elegant courage. I have stood in such a place before, in a place that was not in our own world, covered with fog to hide the truth from us. 

I evaded such truth for quite some time as I was afraid. Afraid of what my heart was truly telling me to do. 

I yell out the word I had learned since I found out what my heart truly called. 

_"Persona!"_

My voice echoed throughout the hallway, and time seemed to stop, water dripping from my body, now cooling down from the air conditioning in the inn. 

Nothing. I do not see a brilliant and elegant woman with pink feathers wrapped behind her, as if bathed in flames. 

I do not see Konohana Sakuya. 

_"Persona! Konohana Sakuya!"_

I continue to yell, but in vain, as the faceless people continue to chatter away as if I'm not even there. I run out, yelling the words over and over again, until my determination falters, my fears solidifying to something far more terrifying. 

"Chie! Can you hear me!?" I call out the name that first comes to mind, and then others. 

"Yui-kun! Yosuke-kun! Kanji-kun! Rise-san! Are you there!? Can anyone hear me?!" No answer, as I continue to run around, opening the doors, not even minding when the delicate wooden doors are torn from their frame. I continue to run and shout until I can't. 

"H-Help..." My voice was hoarse from all the desperate yelling. I don't know where to go. My head is reeling. I call for my Persona, one last time. After all, who can I trust but myself if there was no one here? I had to rely on myself. I had to. 

I feel another chill down my spine. And I look to the left, and I see the hallway mirror, as if it had always been there, and there was me, not naked and wet, but seeming to have dried and worn my clothes back on after a bath. I'm smiling, gently, at my reflection, but I am not smiling. My head feels dizzy again. This felt wrong... So wrong... 

I shudder, and force myself to smile as I stand up along with my reflection, as I look away, gripping onto my arms until the shaking subsides. I go back to my room and I lay out the futon to sleep on. 

I continue smiling. That forced, painful smile as I cry myself to sleep. Because I remember now. But I won't be. 

I close my eyes. And when I open them, it's morning. And it's a brand new day.

My name is Yukiko Amagi. I live in Inaba, and it certainly is a quiet town...


End file.
